Is Borate Treated Lumber Safe

There are numerous advantages to using borate chemicals on lumber.

Is borate treated lumber safe. Can you paint pressure treated lumber. Is borate treated structural lumber safe for using in vegetable gardens. Protection at its finest. Depending on the composition used wood chips or wood saw dust the wood particles are fused with a resin system and placed under high heat and pressure to form a large board.

Step 2 protect yourself. Treated plywood and zinc borate treated osb are performing very well against termites. Culpeper borate treated wood products are also backed by a lifetime limited warranty. Borate treated lumber is preferred by contractors and homeowners for building lasting protection into any home.

Borate treated lumber resists whatever nature dishes out including the devastating formosan termite whose colonies can eat 1 000 pounds of wood a year. Field test data also exists for exterior uses of borate treated wood. The msds sheet does not really address this. Lumber treated with sodium borate sbx or micronized copper quaternary mcq is generally safe as long as you don t use it for a food surface or in a place where pets can chew it.

Once the wood has been treated and kept dry the borate protection is extremely long lasting. What is pressure treated lumber. Although they are highly toxic to wood boring insects and fungi they exhibit low toxicity to humans and other mammals. You can read more tips on how to remove paint in my 3 part series on paint removal techniques.

When using pressure treated wood indoors check the label. For example borate treated millwork sid ing and window frames have been shown to successfully resist termites if protected from leaching by a well main tained exterior paint. Boracare is non toxic but you still need to be safe when using borates. An internet search found borate treated wood available under several brand names including advance guard and hi bor both made by a company that used to sell a lot of cca treated wood so they should be just as easy to obtain.

Dry rough lumber absorb borate chemicals readily. The active chemical is disodium octaborate tetrahydride and the product is marketed as advance guard treated lumber. The laminate or particle board formed can be treated during the production process with various borates including zinc borate. View and download our borate safe handling instructions.

Is treated wood as strong as regular wood. Treated with disodium octaborate tetrahydrate dot and is a preservative that is epa registered and meets the standard 5 requirements of the american wood preservers association.